City/Town: Maple Grove

Legislative District: Senate District 37

Party: Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

Candidate responses in italics.

Q1: Housing plays a critical role in economic stability, health, and quality of life for individuals and families. However, disparities in housing continue to affect communities of color, people with disabilities, rural communities, and other historically underserved populations. What meaningful actions should be taken to acknowledge, address, and eliminate housing inequities and advance housing opportunities for all Minnesotans?

Every Minnesotan deserves a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home. We must begin by acknowledging that discrimination, inaccessible housing, and uneven investment have created persistent barriers for communities of color, people with disabilities, rural residents, veterans, seniors, and low-income families.

In my public-sector work, I have helped homeless and justice-involved veterans access stable housing, food, income, healthcare, and other essential resources. That experience has shown me that housing stability is closely connected to a person’s health, safety, employment, and ability to build a better future.

Minnesota should increase the supply of housing at a range of price points, preserve existing affordable housing, expand accessible housing for people with disabilities and seniors, and strengthen pathways to both rental stability and homeownership. We must also enforce fair housing protections and connect people experiencing housing instability with effective, easy-to-navigate support services.

The state should partner with local communities to address their distinct needs, including investing in roads, water, sewer, broadband, and other infrastructure needed to support housing in rural and rapidly growing communities. Finally, we must ensure housing programs are transparent, accountable, and protected from fraud so public resources reach the Minnesotans they are intended to serve.

Q2: Supportive housing combines affordable housing with support services that help people who face the most complex challenges to live with stability, autonomy, and dignity. Supportive housing provides better outcomes and is fiscally responsible. What will you do to ensure community members who are unhoused or unstably housed receive the support they need to obtain or keep their own homes?

In my public-sector work, I have helped homeless and justice-involved veterans obtain stable housing and connect with healthcare, food, income, education, and other resources. That experience has shown me that providing a home is essential, but housing stability often depends on whether people can also access the support they need.

I will support investments in supportive housing and homelessness prevention programs that help Minnesotans remain safely and independently housed. This includes connecting people with mental health and substance use treatment, disability services, employment assistance, healthcare, transportation, and other resources based on their individual needs. These services must be accessible, trauma-informed, and easy to navigate.

We must also improve coordination among state agencies, counties, cities, healthcare providers, and nonprofit organizations so people are not forced to navigate disconnected systems or repeatedly prove their eligibility for help. Whenever possible, we should intervene before someone loses their home by expanding access to rental assistance, housing navigation, and other early supports.

Finally, I will insist on strong oversight and measurable outcomes for publicly funded programs. Accountability should ensure that resources reach the people they are intended to serve, services are effective, and public dollars produce lasting housing stability. Supportive housing is not only compassionate. It strengthens communities and reduces the greater public costs associated with chronic homelessness, emergency healthcare, and involvement in the justice system.

Q3: Homeownership is a way to build generational wealth, provide family and household stability, and support community vibrancy. More and more Minnesotans are priced out of owning a home because of rising housing costs, including purchase price, homeowners’ insurance, and property taxes. What steps will you take to increase opportunities for renters and first-time homebuyers to purchase homes, condos, or cooperative ownership models?

Homeownership should be within reach for working families, not reserved only for those with significant wealth or family assistance. I will support affordable mortgage programs, homebuyer education, and credit-building resources for first-time buyers. These programs should be easy to navigate and intentionally reach communities that have historically faced discrimination or exclusion from homeownership.

We must also increase the supply and variety of entry-level homes. The state should partner with local governments, nonprofit developers, and community organizations to support starter homes, condominiums, townhomes, community land trusts, and cooperative ownership models. Investments in roads, water, sewer, and other infrastructure can help communities accommodate new housing while ensuring development meets local needs.

Preserving existing affordable homes is just as important as building new ones. I will support rehabilitation and repair programs that help lower-income homeowners, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities remain safely in their homes. We should also pursue responsible ways to reduce the burden of property taxes and rising homeowners’ insurance costs while protecting consumers and maintaining essential public services.

Finally, housing assistance must be transparent and accountable. Strong oversight will help ensure public resources reach qualified renters and first-time buyers, produce measurable results, and create lasting opportunities for families to build stability and generational wealth.

Q4: In the last several years, bipartisan action to streamline building of new homes and apartments has passed in several states, including: allowing for multifamily buildings in select commercial areas, limiting parking requirements, allowing smaller homes on smaller lots, and more homes per lot in residential areas like duplexes, fourplexes, and accessory dwelling units. What reforms do you support to modernize zoning to both enable homes to be more affordable statewide and improve city tax bases?

As a Maple Grove City Councilmember, I understand that zoning decisions directly affect housing affordability, economic development, infrastructure, and the character of our communities. I support modernizing zoning to give cities more tools and flexibility to meet their housing needs while preserving meaningful local planning and public input.

Communities should be able to reduce parking requirements where sufficient alternatives exist and consider smaller lots, accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and other housing types that can create more affordable options. These reforms should reflect local conditions, including infrastructure capacity, transportation access, environmental concerns, and anticipated population growth.

The state can help by providing technical assistance, encouraging effective local reforms, and investing in the roads, water, sewer, transit, and other infrastructure necessary to support additional housing. I favor a collaborative approach that establishes clear statewide housing goals without imposing a single model on every city, suburb, and rural community.

Thoughtful zoning reform can expand housing choices for seniors, working families, first-time buyers, and people with disabilities. It can also help cities make better use of existing infrastructure and strengthen their tax bases. Our goal should be responsible growth that creates more homes while ensuring communities have the resources needed to support them.

Q5: Despite housing being the largest cost in the average household budget, housing receives only a small fraction of the total state budget at just 0.3%. A lack of ongoing reliable funding for housing in Minnesota’s state budget has resulted in an undersupply of stable homes affordable to our workforce, our elders, and our families. In recent years, a constitutional amendment for housing, which would dedicate revenues from a sales tax increase to housing, has gained momentum at the legislature. What revenue options will you champion to more adequately meet our need for reliable funding for homes we can afford?

Minnesota must treat housing as essential infrastructure and make it a more consistent priority in the state budget. I will support reliable ongoing investments through the General Fund, responsible state bonding for housing and related infrastructure, and efforts to maximize federal, local, nonprofit, and private funding.

State resources should support the construction and preservation of affordable housing, supportive housing, accessible homes for people with disabilities and seniors, and infrastructure needed for housing in rapidly growing and rural communities. We should also give local governments effective financing tools to address their specific housing needs.

I would carefully evaluate any proposed constitutional amendment or new sales tax. At a time when families are already struggling with the costs of housing, food, healthcare, transportation, and education, we must consider whether a sales tax increase would place an additional burden on the Minnesotans we are trying to help. Any dedicated revenue proposal must include strong accountability, clear performance measures, and safeguards ensuring the money is used effectively.

Reliable funding cannot depend only on occasional budget surpluses or one-time appropriations. Minnesota needs a balanced, sustainable approach that prioritizes housing within the existing budget, responsibly leverages additional funding, and ensures public dollars produce stable homes that working families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities can afford.

Q6: If you have other housing policy priorities, especially specific to your district’s housing needs, please share them here.

Senate District 37 includes rapidly growing suburban communities as well as smaller cities and rural areas, so a one-size-fits-all housing policy will not meet every community’s needs. My priority is to help each city plan responsibly for growth while expanding housing options that working families, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and young people can afford.

Housing development must be supported by adequate infrastructure. Several communities in our district are experiencing significant population growth, while others face gaps in broadband and transportation. I will work to secure state support for roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, broadband, and transit so cities can add housing without placing unsustainable costs on existing residents and local taxpayers.

I also want to expand opportunities for seniors to age in place and remain connected to healthcare, transportation, and community services. New and existing housing should include accessible options for people with disabilities and accommodate residents at different stages of life.

Finally, I will support stronger coordination among cities, counties, housing providers, healthcare systems, and nonprofit organizations to prevent homelessness and connect residents with available assistance. As someone who has helped homeless and justice-involved veterans access stable housing and other resources, I understand that navigating these systems can be difficult. We must make housing programs easier to access while maintaining strong oversight so resources reach the people they are intended to serve.